Loan sold to new servicer, need to cut costs, can we buy a cheaper car?

In June 2012 we started our short sale with BOA and weeks before we were supposed to close they sold our loan to nationstar and we had to start all over again. right now they say they are "reviewing the offer" but our title company is less than informative and can give us no idea on how much longer we have. My husband works for the Michigan Air National Guard and as a result his job was included in the congressional budget cuts this year so our pay was just reduced 20%, we need to cut costs so we don't completely go under. He drives a huge gas guzzling truck and we were thinking of selling the truck in for a smaller, CHEAPER, more fuel efficient car to get him to and from work at the base. My question is should we wait until before or after the short sale closes to do so. We have come this far I don't want to do anything to jeopardize this short sale going through. As I said it would be a much cheaper and older car and it would be to save money but we would have to have financing. HELP!

 

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Nationstar has a horrible reputation for getting things done. None of these banks want to do short sales because it means cutting future revenue to them. Having gone this long, you should ask your state senator to help. The OCC, etc are supposed to, but they seem to be turned into bank lapdogs as soon as they get any banks to do anything. In other words, the longer you take to jump on NStar's case, the longer they will take to do anything.

If you need financing for the car and have the ability, make the change. I assume you can write down the numbers to show that it is saving money and not costing more overall. Likely, someone at the bank will ask how you are buying things while asking for a short sale. You don't want to say, "beats me". You want to shove the numbers up his nose and then there shouldn't be a problem. I assume that since you are talking about finance, you have been diligently paying your mortgage, otherwise, you couldn't finance. So, if you are paying your mortgage, what is the incentive for the bank to do a short sale rather than continue to collect more than they ever could if the property were sold or refinanced? Banks are NOT your friend in the U.S. (I hear Canada is quite the opposite).

So, if getting a different car will save money and you need to finance, when will you be able to do that better than right now? If you've been paying the mortgage, your credit will take a hit with the short sale because it will say "not paid in full" - much much better than foreclosure, but still a hit. If you finance a car afterwards, it will be with significantly higher interest.

You need to get on the ball and not expect NStar to help - this might be useful: http://www.endingforeclosures.com/foreclosures-banks-fannie-mae-fre...

Again, this has taken way longer than it should (almost all short sales do, hence gov't suits, etc.) and the fastest way to get a bank's attention is to bring in a state senator. You can call the investor (if you don't know who, looking it up in the online MERS database often says - and you have the right for that info - regardless of what the bank tells you). Sometimes, the investor will actually do its job and jump on the bank. Repeated calls and demanding the supervisor, escalations, etc. to get a blockage moving can help and is tedious. So, you can see why I suggest going to the big guns at this point.

Thank you so much for the information! We were making payments (I think we were 1 behind) until the short sale was approved by BOA and we stopped bc we moved into my parents' home to get the kids settled before school started, by the time the new servicer got the loan we were so far behind there was NO way we could catch it up and frankly I don't want to now! 

As far as financing we haven't really talked about that yet, we were just taking the first step to see if it was even a safe option to do at this point.

I have been through the ringer with this short sale! I am so over it! When our loan was through Bank of America I called all the time and I was the catalyst by which everything got done (something that really made the title company mad - here is a question for you. What is the title company's role in this? Because they tell me all the time I am to have zero contact with the bank) but when the loan switched to Nationstar they lady was SO rude and mean I actually have been afraid to call back. She refused to give me information on MY HOUSE and when I pressed it she yelled the information at me and hung up on me! I am fairly thick skinned but this was crazy!

I will definitely be doing the things above that you suggest, thank you again for your suggestions! I really appreciate the help! I really feel like NO ONE is on our side!

THANK YOU :) 

I don't know what you have going. In short sales, the title co is picked by the buyer and has virtually nothing to do with the sale until it has been approved and is ready for closing. You should be represented by the listing agent - again, someone having nothing to do with the title co except to ask for the title report so he can create the HUD-1 and know what needs to be negotiated with whom. So, your comment about the title co is very strange to me. I do short sales for agents and lawyers - and if you haven't guessed, it is because the banks make them extremely tedious and painful and these people would rather do what they do best and make money at it than spend hours on the phone arguing about the dumbest things, etc. So, the usual setup is the listing agent or someone (like me) representing him does almost all of the legwork dealing with the bank, making them stay awake and do their jobs, fight them on absurd evaluations, submit documents over and over, get to the investor when escalations at the bank are going nowhere, etc.

I've had sellers totally clueless, which is fine with me, and those who quickly understand what I am telling them. And I've had those who blow the deal after months because some idiot drinking buddy knows this guy a state over that can fix things for him. If you have a competent interface, he won't want you to talk to the bank. I have occasionally asked a seller to call, but only after I have confidence that he won't say something detrimental. Say something like, "Oh, yeah? well then screw your short sale" and the bank can easily say that the deal is dead because the home owner said so.  Easy to say the wrong thing - These people are on your side 10 times worse than the IRS is (which was created with the mandate from congress to help the american people with their taxes, btw).

So I have no clue what structure you have that the title co is telling you to back off. I have been very surprised over the years at the insane things done by title co's. I expect them to be mature and knowledgeable because they are insuring the closing and have an important legal position, but that is NOT what I find - can't follow approval directions, add things to already approved HUD-1's and on and on. So, I can see a braindead title co telling you to back off for absolutely no good reason. You want to understand what is what.

So, as I was saying, it should be the listing agent (or his person) doing the brunt of the lifting and occasionally asking you, the listing agent, the buyers agent, the buyers and the title co for signed documents, updates, etc. and everyone else should get the heck out of the way. You want 1 point of contact with the bank or it can extremely rapidly go sideways.

Remember, you are driving this contract and it is between you and the buyer with side things for the agents - them getting paid. All are paid by you (the bank is an extension of you in the short sale, but you are the real owner). So, you don't want to back off because someone talks to you like they own the process. It is your future, credit and home, they just want to make money off of you. And, they let this drag for over a year, they can't tell you that they've been doing a good job to get this done. [I've had several that have gone on for multiple years, but those are obvious - bank going through a couple of HAFA sub-companies rejecting over 4 buyers, seller doing a bankruptcy, and then the usual poor job of bank progression. So, it definitely happens, but if you can't explain why this sat for so long, then it is very likely because these people aren't working hard on getting this done.]

When you call NStar, ask for the person's name - so it is a point that they understand that you are writing it down. Many times, when you have hit a problem at least once before, you should stay on the phone as long as possible to talk to the supervisor. When the supervisor blows you off (and, of course, you got his name, and used it so he knows you know him), ask him for someone with authority who can help you. Every time you get off of the phone w/o getting to someone who will help you, you lose ground. They love to "that's the way it is" or "xx will call you back". Nope, you have umpteen thousand employees, are you saying NO ONE other that this person is competent enough to talk to you and be at work now?

They hang up, you call back, get name again, etc. and complain about the hang up - and ask if they see in the notes about that person talking to you X minutes ago. Hold them accountable - they are absolutely not used to that.

Get the point? It can be no fun and real tough, but making it harder for them to ignore you than do the right thing is what you often need to do. Ask for escalation phone numbers when necessary. Bully them when they "don't have a supervisor" or "don't have an escalation phone number" or "don't have an executive office". Make it hurt, make them know that you will be using their name in your conversations. Be tough. (Sorry, I personally do not like doing some of those things - an improper feeling that people are generally good and honest - which doesn't work with banks much of the time.)

You need to know who is in charge of what in your sale and hold each accountable to his part - or you get what you are getting - possibly screwed, possibly it will close and people who care a who lot less about the situation than you will make some money for a call now and then and sitting on their butts.

[You need an agent and a buyer. You don't need anyone else to do a short sale. Unless you signed something saying this title co is working for you, they are not. Screw them if they don't like you wanting to get the sale done. We have made buyers switch title co's before.]

This is such helpful information! Thank you so much!

I did sign something saying that our title company is essentially working as our negogiator, but they negotiate NOTHING! So do I give them the option to remain the single point of contact (as they tell me over and over again) or do I just go back to calling every week like I did with BOA? I have no problem calling, I did with BOA and it STILL took 11 months, so I was trying to roll with the program with this servicer and it doesn't seem to be going any quicker

 

I've never run into a title co negotiating - I'm guessing there is a good reason for that. Assuming it is legal, you need to be careful - you say you have a contract with them to negotiate. I assume that means that they have cut a percentage out of the sale for themselves and you agreed to it.  You probably should get an attorney involved to see what you got yourself into - and if you can get out of it.  Let me guess, the contract says that they get 1% commission and must be held harmless if anything goes wrong - like they don't do a thing to earn the 1% and some sales go through despite their lack of effort - free money for them - over the bodies of lots of homeowners. Cute.

And you say "our title co"? The only title co should be for the buyer - they look up the title, insure the title for the buyer and do the closing. Why do you as the seller have a title co? Your title co is when you bought the house and insures against a bad title when you got it. Strange stuff.. Something isn't right.

I believe the only thing I signed with them is a third party authorization form, giving them the right to ask for and receive information on my behalf. And we have asked from the beginning "why do we need a title co?!" because they are WORTHLESS!

I will say with BOA we were entered into the Short Sale program and then the laws changed (again no one at the title co forsaw this) and we were forced to go through a modification program which took a long time (I think 3 or 4 months) and then we had to start ALL OVER Again. We went through the entire process got a couple weeks from being DONE and then they sold our file. Every step with BOA I had to call to move along but the title co takes offense to this and told me that nothing I have done wasn't already initiated by them.......

I don't feel like anyone is working for me and at one point we were going to get a lawyer involved but then decided against it, do you think we should go ahead and meet with a lawyer? See if they can help us motivate the title co and the bank?

Depends on the state and the county, our title is paid for by the seller and the seller chooses the title company.  There are alot of title companies negotiating short sales here in my area of Florida.  Seller pays for owners policy and buyer pays for lenders policy here.

I appreciate the info - never ran across title co on the sellers side, especially negotiating. And they negotiate for no extra fee? Hmm.. tough gig.

Getting a lawyer to motivate a title co is like paying a lot of money to push a wet noodle. Are you seriously saying that you have this title co negotiating with BofA for NO money to them? I have trouble believing that. You have no agreement with them except to LET them negotiate for you for free. Right. People don't go through the ordeal of dealing with these cantankerous banks for free.

BofA has been less and more horrible dealing with FHA. Is that your investor? I've had absurd delays because of BofA lack of management. It is possible that this title co is doing a mediocre to average job of trying to get the bank to do something - although w/o large reasons along the way, you cannot explain delay since June 2012.

If all you truly did was sign a 3rd party autho for them, you can revoke that at any time by calling the bank, however, since people don't work for free, generally, you should find out if your listing agent is paying them to do this, or you actually have it in your sales contract. Since you aren't sure of what you have, you better see that you aren't violating something you agreed to by killing the 3rd party autho.

You did not say that you know or found out who the investor is. Why not? That is important. The investor MAKES the rules - how do you know what is going on without knowing what the rules are? BofA is supposed to be working for the investor. When things are not working with them, you need to go to their boss and complain.FHA is different from FNMA is different from Freddie is different from BoNY, etc.

And if you are going to yank this title co, who is going to keep pushing the bank to do their job? As you know, they clearly do not do it on their own. Lawyers are generally expensive and useless - you need to be extremely limited in what you ask of them. Their number 1 client is themselves and you are a far 2nd. Who else charges you at $200/hr for answering the phone when you call? So, be clear and careful if you hire one - recommendations for a decent one are crucial, in my book.

BofA reps ALWAYS (annoyingly) ask if the homeowner is in active service. Did they never offer you information about exceptions and help for military homeowners? Possibly one of the things is someone from the gov't assigned to help you if you ask for it. Obviously, after a year of nowhere, you need help.

As homeowner, you have more rights than anyone to call in and ask anything you want to ask. (I have often gotten the investor name by calling their regular customer service instead of short sales, btw). If you accomplish nothing else, you should call in to find out where the file is and when the next step will be accomplished. If it makes sense, when it is supposed to be done, call in and ask where it is and why it has not been accomplished - probably ask for a supervisor to explain why BofA is slacking, assuming you get "beats me" as the rep's answer. Like most places, the more you stay on point and press them, the more likely they will do their jobs to avoid talking to you again.

At some point, whoever is negotiating for you is going to learn that you have been calling in and is either going to start doing his job or complain to you or you'll get BofA to do their job and you'll be doing this negotiator's job. Anything is better then sitting around hoping things work out. Right?

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